Westmont Magazine Westmont Dedicates the Stan Anderson Golf Complex
Dave Stockton Sr. gives a putting lesson.
President Gayle D. Beebe and alumnus Stan Anderson ’62 cut the ribbon to the new Stan Anderson Golf Complex at a public dedication ceremony September 10 on Westmont’s lower campus. Anderson then sank a ceremonial first putt surrounded by hundreds of cheering Westmont student-athletes and supporters.
The new facility features an 8,000-square-foot artificial putting green, turf trap and pitching areas. A 500-square-foot patio and two 10-foot-wide, covered hitting bays await final approval from Santa Barbara County Planning officials.
“Athletics allow us to experience the full range of human emotion,” Beebe said. “They also allow us to undergo moral transformation. There are few sports that are as precise
and exacting and that do more to teach honesty, integrity and self-regulation than golf. The moral framework of golf teaches us a code of ethics that stretches across the entire landscape of our personal and public life.”
Kirsten Moore, associate athletic director and head women’s basketball coach for the past 15 years, praised Athletic Director Dave Odell, who has a fierce resolve to combine athletic excellence, academic rigor, and character and spiritual development for Westmont’s student-athletes. During his tenure, the Warriors have won 31 Golden State Athletic Conference Championships (not counting tournament championships), five top-four team NAIA finishes, one team National Championship and 10 individual National Championships. Westmont has earned the GSAC All-Sports award as the best athletic department for seven straight years. Moore said this makes it the best athletic program in the best conference in the NAIA—and its student-athletes have earned a cumulative GPA higher than 3.0 for the last five years. “But our deepest motivation cannot be measured by wins and losses: the development of young men and women into leaders of character who will leave Westmont and make a positive impact on the world,” Moore says.
The men’s and women’s golf teams began their seasons September 16-17 at the California State Invitational at Olivas Links Golf Course in Ventura. Both teams host the Westmont Invitational February 24-25 at Sandpiper Golf Club in Goleta. The inaugural Westmont golf teams include 12 men and six women.
Anderson, vice chairman of Accretive Exit Capital Partners, has donated the funds for the project. He serves
on the boards of Physicians Realty Trust (DOC), Blue Ridge Networks and several nonprofits. He graduated from Willamette University Law School in 1969 and has practiced law in Washington, D.C., since then. He has served on the President’s Advisory Committee on Trade Negotiations, the Presidential Commission on Personnel Interchange, and as ambassador to the United Nations Conference on Energy.
The family of Dave Stockton Sr., a five-time major golf champion and Ryder Cup captain, attended the dedication. Both father and Dave Jr. offered putting instruction to the teams after the ceremony. The Stocktons represent Back Nine Greens, which designed and installed the tailor-made synthetic green.
